Chair of Crisis Governance

Annual Crisis Governance Meeting

Crisis Governance in Transition: Revisiting Theories, Rethinking Practice

In an age of cascading crises, from pandemics and climate emergencies to digital disruptions and geopolitical instability, the frameworks that guide our crisis management and governance practices are being profoundly tested.

This two-day conference explores a central question: Do traditional crisis management frameworks, models, and theories still equip us to understand and act effectively in today’s complex, interconnected crises?

Scholars and practitioners from across disciplines are invited to critically examine the validity and utility of classic frameworks, models, and theories of crisis governance and their limits in light of new forms of risk, uncertainty, and institutional strain. The program will feature keynote lectures, panel discussions, and practitioner sessions exploring topics such as adaptive governance, transboundary crises, trust and legitimacy, and the transformation of crisis leadership.

By bringing together theory and practice, the conference invites participants to consider how established frameworks, models, and theories can evolve, or be reimagined, to meet the demands of 21st-century crisis governance.

The Chair of Crisis Governance Welcomes Dr. Wouter Jong

From Snapshots to Dynamics: Rethinking Existing Crisis Governance Frameworks

Existing crisis governance frameworks have helped scholars and practitioners make sense of crises by structuring, categorizing, and analyzing complex situations. These approaches provide valuable snapshots of decision-making, coordination, accountability, and response. Yet contemporary crises increasingly challenge the limits of static models.

In his keynote, Wouter Jong argues for a more dynamic perspective on crisis governance. Building on established frameworks in sensemaking, crisis management, and organizational learning, he explores how crises continuously evolve through interactions between governments, experts, media, technology, and society.

The keynote introduces a “dynamics” perspective in which the focus shifts from fixed moments, where we take “snapshots” to assess situations, to patterns of movement, escalation, adaptation, feedback loops, and changing public meaning throughout the crisis process. While traditional frameworks often capture governance at a particular point in time, a dynamics approach seeks to understand how crisis governance itself changes as crises unfold.

At a time when crises increasingly transcend institutional, temporal, and societal boundaries, the keynote reflects on whether existing governance frameworks remain sufficient to capture the fluid nature of contemporary crises. The keynote invites participants to rethink crisis governance not as the management of isolated events, but as the navigation of continuously shifting dynamics.

Short Bio

Wouter Jong (1972) is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) at Leiden University in the Netherlands. A full-time crisis management practitioner and part-time academic, he combines academic research and teaching on crisis communication, evaluation and learning with extensive hands-on experience in crisis management practice and public leadership. His work focuses on the dynamics of crises, societal resilience, leadership under pressure, and crisis communication challenges. Alongside his academic role, he has worked extensively with Dutch mayors and served as coordinator at the Amsterdam emergency dispatch center. He has also been involved in crisis-related projects and trainings concerning Lebanon, Jordan, Somalia, and Sint Maarten. He regularly contributes to international conferences on crisis governance, crisis communication, and public leadership in times of crisis.

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The Chair of Crisis Governance welcomes Prof. Dr. John Oliver

Crisis Management Re-Imagined

Traditional crisis management theory and practise has long prioritised managing the short-term effects of a crisis. When a cyber-attack hits, a product is recalled, or a financial scandal breaks, the directives are clear: limit the damage by communicating transparently with all stakeholders to mitigate panic and maintain morale; and prevent the situation from escalating whilst restoring operations. While these immediate actions are crucial for survival, they often suffer from a systemic blind spot, that is, the long-term and traumatic organisational consequences triggered by the crisis. 

A ground-breaking new idea, Corporate Trauma, draws inspiration from the biological field of Epigenetics to illustrate how a crisis can result in embedded dysfunctional patterns within an organization’s cultural DNA. These adaptive changes are inherited by executive leaders and employees who develop a deep-seated risk aversion which hinders recovery and stifles innovation. Consequently, the organization becomes trapped in a state of hyper-vigilance and resistance to change, viewing every new venture as a potential threat and passing down cycles of chronic underperformance to future generations of leadership. 

This keynote presentation argues that a crisis is not a discrete event with a definitive end date, but a potential catalyst for long-term psychological and structural organizational decline that can persist for decades after the original crisis. As such, crisis management theory needs to evolve from the linear model (Prevention-Response-Recovery) toward a trauma-informed framework that identifies and measures the hidden impact on cultural norms and shifts the recovery phase narrative from “returning to normal” to “managing the long-term consequences” of the crisis. 

Short Bio

Prof. Dr. John Oliver is a multi-award winning academic-consultant whose research has had a significant impact on both policy and business practice. His work, published in leading international business journals, focuses on the intersection of innovation, crisis management, and strategic organizational transformation. He has a proven track record of generating world-class impact, with his research on the effects of crisis events on innovation and corporate financial performance directly influencing the UK Government’s ‘Build Back Better: our plan for growth’ and the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee’s ‘Innovation Strategy’. His research on strategic organizational transformation has influenced UK Communications policy and regulatory decisions, and the public policy debate on internet regulation. This work has also generated financial benefits for several world-class management consultancies, resulting in direct economic impacts such as new jobs and significant financial investments by FTSE 100 firms. 

Professor Oliver is an advisory board member of the Horizon Scanning & Foresight Committee (Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology) and a member of the Centre of Excellence and Profession in the Enterprise Portfolio Management Office (UK Parliament). He is a former President of the European Media Management Association, a former Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, a former Parliamentary Academic Fellow.

The third edition of the Crisis Governance Meeting will put a special emphasis on “Crisis Governance in Transition: Revisiting Theories, Rethinking Practice”.  It will take place on September 17 and 18, 2026, in Antwerp, Belgium. It provides a meeting ground and ample opportunity for exchange between researchers and practitioners, based on thoughtful and intriguing presentations.

This conference invites scholars and practitioners to reflect critically on the foundations of crisis governance. In recent years, the scale, speed, and interconnection of crises have transformed how societies govern under pressure. From global pandemics to climate emergencies, cybersecurity threats, and disinformation campaigns, crises today often defy traditional categories and challenge established models of preparedness, response, and recovery. Are the classic frameworks, models, and theories of crisis management — rooted in command-and-control, stability, and clear accountability — still adequate for today’s turbulent landscape? Or do new realities call for fundamentally different ways of thinking about power, coordination, knowledge, and trust?

Themes and Topics

Submissions may address (but are not limited to) the following themes:

  • The evolution and endurance of crisis management theory
  • Organizational resilience and adaptive governance
  • Legitimacy, trust, and accountability during crises
  • Transboundary and multi-level crisis management
  • The politics of expertise, communication, and misinformation
  • Learning from failure: institutional memory and post-crisis reform
  • The role of digital technologies and AI in crisis decision-making
  • Comparative perspectives on governance innovation in crises

Submission Guidelines

  • Abstract length: 300–500 words
  • Submission deadline: June 28, 5 pm CEST, 2026
  • Notification of acceptance: July 15, 2026

Please send your abstract and a short biographical note (max. 150 words) to chair.crisisgovernance@uantwerpen.be

Selected presentations may result in a publication in a Crisis Issues paper series.

Your expertise at center stage

We are particularly excited to spotlight presentations from practitioners and academics eager to share interesting findings and actionable conclusions on the aforementioned domains.

Why present?

This is a unique opportunity to showcase your insights (and research) to an audience of peers and industry leaders. Spark transformative discussions that lead to future advancements in crisis governance. Your knowledge and experience are invaluable to the collective effort of shaping the future of crisis governance.

We are eager to learn from your experience, challenges, and visions at the third Annual Crisis Governance Meeting 2026. If you have any questions or require further details, please do not hesitate to contact Hugo (Hugo.Marynissen@uantwerpen.be) or Pieter (Pieter.Boghe@uantwerpen.be).

We are looking forward to your submission!

The event at a glance

Thursday, September 17 & Friday, September 18, 2026

  • Venue: , Boogkeers 5, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
  • Theme: Crisis Governance in Transition: Revisiting Theories, Rethinking Practice
  • Keynotes and presentations from practitioners and researchers
  • A preliminary program will be communicated in July 2026.

Practical

·&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; Registration will open on June 1st

·&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; The registration fee is 220 euros (VAT included), and it includes coffee & tea breaks, lunches, and access to the Annual Crisis Governance Meeting.

·&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;Employees from our partner organisations (Brandweer Zone Antwerpen, PM • Risk Crisis Change, Port of Antwerp Bruges and Brussels Airport Company) receive a discounted rate of 150 euros (VAT included)

·&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; If you want to present at the meeting, please submit an abstract of up to 500 words before June 28, 5:00 pm CEST, 2026. 

·&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; We have a maximum capacity of 60 participants; hence, we admit on a ‘first-come, first-served’ basis.

·&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; The registrations will be closed on August 31, 2026.

·&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; All presentations will be in person and in English.